ZERO S01E12: The Web Closes
Episode 12: The Web Closes is the twelfth episode of Star Rider ZERO, an online written show by Haou1987. It began on February 4, 2014. It featured the Mexus Cartel declaring full war against the NYPD and the FBI, after the Black Archer kills one of their Underlords, and Mark becomes caught in the middle, when Reed Gould's press conference for re-election becomes hijacked by mercenaries lead by Dreadtooth. Characters introduced: 'Roy Lance, Paul Newman, Leona Lawrence, President Aaron Palmer '''Production and writing time: '''February 4, 2014 - May 2, 2014 Synopsis It was night in New York, and three black SUVs, guarded by two motorcyclists were riding over the highway to a location outside New York. Inside the middle SUV, Miles Storn was seated working on his laptop. He had an open communications program running, speaking through chat and voice chat with five misformed voices. He is informed operations are going to be moved ahead of schedule, due to the recent setbacks they have experienced. The Triad is placing its assets at focus points, it is time to rule the city, to show the Mexus Cartel rules New York. As Miles admits this is a good plan, the front SUV explodes. An arrow flies through the window, missing Miles by an inch. The five other voices disconnect immediately, while Miles is scared when the back SUV explodes too. Outside the two motor cyclists have picked up speed and circle around the SUV with Miles as a third motor cyclist joins the fray, shooting crossbow bolts to kill them. He grabs Miles through the window, drawing him out of the car and uses another crossbow bolt to finish off both the driver and the passenger in the SUV. Turning around to a badly hurt Miles Storn the motor cyclist reveals himself to be the Black Archer and tells him New York doesn't deserve a future misguided by the Mexus Cartel, therefore he has failed his life. Miles Storn ploys him to reconsider and take his money, but the Black Archer is unmoved and kills Miles Storn with a single crossbow bolt. The next morning panic ensues when the local radio station and television network is being raided by mercenaries led by Freddie Verengue. He single handedly kills most of the television hosts and takes a seat in the chair of the anchor, airing live over all televisions in New York. He warns the people of New York not to take arms against them. Their protectors cannot protect them anymore. Their protectors killed one of the Cartel's finest, and now the Cartel will retaliate against New York and its people. No longer a game of fighting in the shadows, this is open war and the NYPD, the mayor and all those people who have said they serve the people of New York, have failed the city. They rule now and only them. He cuts off the television feed and signals to Areezen saying he may begin his operations in New York, this is their territory now. '''THE CUBE - 'Madison Crena is sat down in a holding cell on the SPECTER facility known as the Cube. She is unmoved, she doesn't show any emotion or pain, inspite of the serious injuries her abduction by SPECTER agents caused weeks ago. Agent Julius Lokin enters the holding cell sitting opposite of Madison Crena. He tells her New York is about to become a battleground. The Mexus Cartel, her former employer, has taken over the streets. She supplied them with research that could lead to an even harder to trace strain of Dinobyte, one that could kill instantly. Madison Crena smirks, saying the world will know their wrath. She has given a tool to sever the world of its weaklings, a world that took everything away from her. Agent Lokin understands she talks about the Zone Zero incident in Dellaville. He tries to apply to her human side, but Madison tells him the government took it from her, there is no turning back, she will not help them. The New York as he knew it, will cease to exist in mere days. Agent Lokin walks out of the room, meeting with SPECTER Director Laura Hand. Agent Lokin tells her they aren't making progress. Director Hand tells him to get in touch with all SPECTER operators in New York and that they need to prepare for war. Agent Lokin agrees and says he will take a team of his own and go to New York to oversee things there. Arriving at his house, two police cars have arrived there. Fearing the worst, Mark is relieved when he finds out Captain Brack had assigned them to protect him and his family. Entering his house, Mark is met by his wife and daughter who say Ben had gone to the city hall to the mayor speak. Captain Brack had already send a car, but sofar they haven't heard if Ben was found. Mark assures Anne and Emma that Ben will be fine. The officers around him say the city is locked down by the police, nothing bad can happen. Mark says he feels more comfortable if he checks it out himself. The officers tells him they have strict orders to protect the Wellace family and will do so, but he cannot move out now, not now the Cartel has lost one of its ranking members. Mark repeats he is going for his son and one of the officers offers to accompany him to the city hall where the press conference is being held to make sure Ben is safe. With an agreement from his superiors Mark and the officer leave for the city hall. On their way to the city hall, Officer Lance introduces himself to Mark, saying he just transferred here over from Washington PD. He didn't expect to end up in such situations though. Mark tells him these situations have been happening a lot during the past months. Arriving at the City Hall not long after, Mark enters directly, flashing his Press ID, while Officer Lance checks up with the lead officer on scene. Using a bit of ZERO's help, Mark short circuits a security door to get to the upper level to get a better oversight of the situation, but was unable to locate Ben anywhere in the crowd. At that point the double doors open and Reed Gould enters the chamber with his secretary announcing the press conference will start right away and that questions can be asked afterwards. While covering the second floor, Mark turns his attention to the press conference. Reed Gould starts the press conference by thanking the upcoming press while stating that they will not let the attacks that happened go unpunished. The city has suffered a lot thanks to the Mexus Cartel and they are continueing to press the city into further chaos, but in times like these the city needs a leader that stands up against them, a leader that is powerful. He knows this is the wrong time to announce this, but he has officially reentered the race for prolonging being the mayor, this to the surprise of fellow candidates Paul Newman and Leona Lawrence. The reporters are more interested in what the mayor plans to do against the upcoming attacks of the Mexus Cartel on the city. Gould tells them he has officially requested help from the National Guard and neighbouring police districts to assist in preventing another attack. NSA has surveillance satellites above New York now, and three DX-5 Reaper Drones to surveil and act if necessary. Gould then proceeds to say the press conference has ended and he is open to questions. One of the attendees says she has one and proceeds to stab a fellow reporter in the neck, instantly killing him. She then pulls out a gun, killing the two security guys around Gould. Mark, witnessing this all, ducks behind the second floor balcony as the doors below blow up and Dreadtooth enters the building, using a sidearm to kill three more reporters. Reed Gould steps forward to adress Dreadtooth, but Dreadtooth says he has no time for politics and shoots Gould in the shoulder. He then takes the place of Gould at the altar and says the law of the Mexus Cartel is now placed upon the city. There is nothing standing between them and total control. Star Rider ZERO then drops down, kicking down one of the fellow attackers of Dreadtooth and absorbs electricity from the nearby television, to electrify his liquid gauntlets, taking down two more of the guards, however Dreadtooth swings him back to the wall, firing multiple shots pinning Star Rider ZERO down, but when Star Rider ZERO tries to attack Dreadtooth with his electrified liquid gauntlets, but he is revealed to be equipped with specialized armor absorbing the electricity. Dreadtooth then pulls out his sniper rifle and kills two random hostages, before turning onto Ben Wellace. Star Rider ZERO jumps in between, catching the bullet in the head, the impact crashing him and Ben into the wall. An emergency town meeting between people from the mayor's cabinet is discussing the possibility of requesting army assistance, but one of them argues this could cause a war right inside New York, a war that could topple the believes of people in the well being of the city. The meeting is interrupted however by a band of mercenaries led by Owen Forshir, who demands that the five present council members need to reveal themselves. When they do, Owen Forshir and his mercenaries kill the rest. Hiroko Aiken then enters the room, telling the remaining five council members that their services are required. He knows during the raids of police and SWAT that their stacks of gold and drugs have been sealed away at five different locations, outside the knowledge of Reed Gould. The Mexus Cartel is no longer in the dark, they are here to claim what is theirs. Hiroko and Owen lead out the five council members and into a black van, driving away. Star Rider ZERO helps Ben up and Ben is surprised Star Rider ZERO did not get hurt by the bullet aimed for his head. Unable to do much against the approaching Dreadtooth, both parties are surprised when a trick arrow is shot inside and blinds Dreadtooth and the other hostage takers. The Black Archer enters the building, quickly killing two hostage takers and then fighting back to back with Star Rider ZERO against either Dreadtooth or the other mercenaries. Dreadtooth smirks when he manages to break the bow of the Black Archer, kicking him back and then pulls out a vial with a serum inside. He says the SSP-3 Serum was stored deep below the surface of New York, it is time to release it into a living creature again. He presses it in one of the hostages and takes Reed Gould with him as both Star Rider ZERO and the Black Archer tend to the hostage who got pinned by Dreadtooth. Emma and Anne are watching the news of the ensueing crisis in New York as three black SUVs arrive outside the house. Agent Lokin and Agent Archer exit the front one, knocking on their door. After gaining entrance, Agent Lokin tells Emma and Anne, due to Mark's involvement they are high priority targets and must move to a safe room right now to stay safe. Emma argues they are perfectly fine inside the house, there is nothing that could hurt them any less in here then outside. Agent Lokin tells her they do not want to take risks and Emma says her husband and son are still out there, in danger, she is not going anywhere! Agent Lokin grudgingly assigns Agent Archer to them as security, saying he is the best protection he can offer at the moment. He tells Agent Archer he is picking up the other high valuable target and move to location bravo. Leaving the house, Agent Archer sets a couple of ground rules, ordering them to close the windows and blind the windows. No-one is coming in to get them. As Dreadtooth escapes through the basement into the underground tunnel system with Reed Gould, Star Rider ZERO and Black Archer are still tending to the infected hostage, who starts to exhibit strange reactions to the serum, including increased muscle mass but a dazed expression. Black Archer tells Star Rider ZERO to go after Reed Gould, he will handle this. Star Rider ZERO looks at Ben, but Black Archer tells him he will watch over Ben. As Star Rider ZERO moves into the basement, Black Archer is pushed away from the infected hostage who the grabs one of the other hostages and kills him by strangling him with one bare hand. The Black Archer decides to take action and starts shooting two crossbow bolts at the mutated hostage, but it has no effect. Black Archer goes into hand to hand combat, dealing several blows to the hostage, but again the mutated hostage does not budge. The mutated hostage throws the Black Archer away and then grabs one of the other hostages, biting her and throwing her against the wall. The second hostage apparently dies from a broken neck, but the Black Archer witnesses her raising back to her feet, expressing the same symptons as the first hostage that mutated. The Black Archer fires more crossbow bolts, but this is to no avail and the Black Archer leads them away from the unmutated hostages into a series of vaults. Star Rider ZERO is now pursueing Dreadtooth and Reed Gould through the tunnels below the city hall. This leads him to discover the second group with Owen Forshir in control heading for the vaults below the surface. Hiroko Aiken greets Reed Gould, saying the time is there for the Mexus Cartel to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. As Aiken and a few mercenaries lead Gould and the other council members on, Dreadtooth and Forshir turn onto Star Rider ZERO, engaging him both in a fist and fire fight, with Star Rider ZERO barely coming out on top. Using a flashbang, Owen Forshir manages to distract Star Rider ZERO enough for him to get away into the tunnels, but Dreadtooth knocks Star Rider ZERO out cold, placing him on his shoulder, moving in the opposite direction of both Forshir and Aiken. Agent Lokin enters the barricaded police precinct where he meets Captain Walton Brack who is getting the last of his people together that are not in the city evacuating people or handling small crises set up by the Cartel. Agent Lokin tells Captain Brack it is to dangerous for the captain to be out in the open on the streets, he needs to go to one of the bunkers. Captain Brack says he wants this crisis dealt with as much as Lokin, he will stay and he will help. At that moment Officer Lance enters the precinct saying Reed Gould is kidnapped by the Cartel, the Black Archer and Star Rider ZERO have been sighted at the press conference and something much weirder is going on there. Captain Brack tells Agent Lokin he will handle the Gould kidnapping, he should go handle the Cartel war on the streets. Agent Lokin says he knows about the vaults stored with gold and drugs, gotten from the Cartel. It is one thing they will blow up or get their hands on. Captain Brack should never have allowed those vaults to exist underneath New York. Captain Brack tells him he had little choice, it kept the Cartel at bay then, they cannot reach it now. Correct, Agent Lokin tells him, SPECTER removed its contents from the vaults long ago. The vaults pose no threat. Reed Gould tells Hiroko Aiken, he should think twice, the vaults are each at seperate places. Hiroko Aiken tells him one thing at a time, as they arrive at the first vault. He orders his men to decript the vault's safety. While the decription is on its way, Gould asks what Dreadtooth did to those people in the city hall. Hiroko Aiken tells him it is the shamefull history of New York, a dark secret hidden for years. They merely used an ounce of what that secret contained. He then turns to his men who confirm they have eliminated the security and Aiken single handedly opens the vault, however gets furious when he finds out there is nothing inside the vault. Reed Gould laughs, saying it is to bad for them, the vault is empty, they came here for nothing. Hiroko Aiken stays calm and tells his men to map a route to the surface and get in touch with the others. The Black Archer meanwhile corners the two infected people in a single room, fighting hand by hand with them, finally managing to kill one by shooting a crossbow bolt right between the eyes. The Black Archer then engages the second infectee, the female one, and proves to be superior in fighting style, but unfortunately kicks her back into the room where still a lot of people are. He finally manages to snap her neck, before being thrown back and then gets back up shooting a crossbow bolt right between the woman's eyes. The woman falls down on the ground, right in front of a little girl who starts to sob uncontrollably, whining about her mother. The Black Archer, now having finshed the threat off, instead of going after Star Rider ZERO goes back outside and disappears in a blink of the eye. Hiroko Aiken and his band of mercenaries meet up above ground with Dreadtooth and asks where Forshir is. Dreadtooth says he disappeared after their fight between Star Rider ZERO and himself and Forshir. Hiroko says there has been a minor setback in the plan, but the city of New York is going to pay for this. He pulls out his telephone and calls a number. The number is that of a female Drone operator and she hears the callsign ''Pinnacle' Down'', initiating some kind of reaction in her, pulling out two handguns and killing her fellow drone operators. Hiroko then tells her to send a drone to every single location he provides. The female operator says yes and opens the door to let in a few more men of the Cartel to operate the drones. Mark returns to the surface, having shedded the Star Rider ZERO disguise and finds Ben, and they are both very happy to see each other again. Ashley then enters saying she came here the moment she heard about the attack on the press conference. She catches up to what happened and then finds herself confronted with the little girl whose mother was slaughtered by Black Archer. She gets comfortable with the girl, even enabling her to get a name, Amber. At that moment Mark and Ben prepare to leave the city hall but hear a loud noise, seeing an assault drone appear in the sky. It fires two missiles at the city center, with Mark and Ben in it, blowing the building up. As panic ensues about a rogue drone having attacked the city, Agent Lokin demands reports from all cops. He wants to know what was hit. When he hears the city center had been attacked, he demands a full overview of casualties. He is both surprised and happy to not see Mark or any of the Wellace family on it. He tells Captain Brack SPECTER satellites have been repositioned above New York tracking the drones. Officer Lamnon then enters, telling them Ashley Lewis has arrived here, after being picked up by a squad car to get her to safety. As Lamnon brings Ashley inside, one of the agents that got access to the SPECTER satellites alerts Agent Lokin and Captain Brack to one of the drones being very close to here. Realizing they may have a problem, Captain Brack orders the precinct to evacuate immediately. To late however, as the drone close to them fires two missiles at the precinct, blowing it up. Agent Archer gets a call inside the Wellace residence from a fellow agent that the precinct has been attacked by a drone attack and that he should secure the premise and evacuate with the family. Before Agent Archer can do anything, he sees a drone appear at the horizon and pushes Emma and Anne to the ground as it launches two missiles at the house, blowing up both the house where Agent Archer and the rest of the family Wellace is and the two houses around it. Cars crash outside, in the destruction, as the drone unloads its mounted machine guns on the crowd below, killing several before flying away from the streets. The destruction in the city is very noticeable as the drones disappear very quickly after their attacks. Director Laura Hand, at the SPECTER Command Base, demands to know what is happening. Agent Brinks reports that the city is being ravaged by assault drones, hijacked by members of the Mexus Cartel and that they still are active, supposedly heading for new targets. This conflict within the city is escalating. Director Hand tells Agent Brinks to get a hold of the President, they may have to declare martial law on New York, it may be the only chance the city has against the ongoing attacks on the city. She also orders to get in touch with their assets on the ground, to see whoever is alive and capable of action. She ends with it is going to be a hell. To be continued... Trivia *No trivia for this episode. Seasons 1 - 2 Episodes 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - '''12 - 13